Description:
Note: The Defensor, or Defensor Civitatis to give him his full title,
was an administrative figure in the late Roman legal system (post 364AD)
with responsibility for representing and protecting the poor. In early
medieval France, the Defensor's role seems mainly to have been as a magistrate
representing the interests of the provincial citizenry against central
authorities. Inevitably, the role becomes individually personified, as
at Le Mans, where 'St Defensor' appears in the list of saints.